missional church

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the problem of consumerism creeping into Unitarian Universalism. The model of church I presented in that article seems to be a service-oriented delivery system where the minister, staff, and lay leaders act to deliver goods in a supply and demand type situation that nearly always turns the focus of the congregation inward towards what we want. Left unchecked, this attitude can contribute to the death of a religious community.

But what is the alternative?

To answer this question, I want to ask, “What is the purpose of a religious community?” What would the world lose if your congregation were to go out of existence tomorrow? If the answer is a social club or a place with the occasional nice, intellectual sermon, I wonder if the world would truly lose much.

My colleague Michael A. Schuler, in his essay in The Growing Church: Keys to Congregational Vitality, suggests that the purpose of a religious community is to act as a place of transformation. In other words, church exists to transform lives, and this transformation is lost if a church goes out of existence. Congregations that are unable to become centers of transformation, he believes, are destined to die.

So many of our congregations are on autopilot, transforming few, if any, lives, and without a clear reason for them to exist in the world. With this the reality for many, how can these churches become vital centers of transformation within their communities?

I want to suggest that Unitarian Universalists pay attention to an emerging paradigm within the Christian world: the missional church movement.

The missional church movement is rooted in the idea of missional living: the idea that all Christians are first and foremost missionaries, or emissaries from God to the larger world. Thus, missional living is the idea that Christians are to go out into the world and live their values, not because it will make people want to come to our churches or to make ourselves look good, but because it is the right thing to do. It is rooted in relationship: the idea that we are in relationship with each person we meet in the world every day.

Missional living can involve simple acts, such as having lunch with a friend in need, or more complicated, like dog sitting for a neighbor who has to go out of town for their mother’s funeral. While many of us do these nice things out of the generosity of our hearts, those engaged in missional living connect these acts to their faith and values and intentionally seek out opportunities to engage in good in the world.

The why becomes not just that it’s a nice thing to do, but that their faith demands they do good in the world.

The missional church movement sees preparing people for the work of missional living to be the primary function of the congregation. Missional churches may hold a variety of educational opportunities to equip people for the task of missional living. This may involve small group ministry, spiritual practice groups, Bible study, and engaging worship. The minister and other staff are around to guide this process of discipleship, or preparing people to live out their values in the world, but the work of the church is everyone’s work.

Paradoxically, though they are not seeking converts, missional Christians find quite a few because their lifestyle allows them to clearly communicate that there’s something different about their lives.

Why does the missional church work?

For one, unlike the consumerist model, missional church looks outside at how can our congregation be the best center of transformation for our communities and the larger world. Sure, the church will still have some degree of inward focus as they provide discipleship and pastoral care for members, but this will be balanced by a rich program of mission.

The missional model also requires every member to be an active participant in the life of the community. There are no more free passes as people coast in consuming the services of the church or expecting that someone else will get something done. Programs bubble to the surface among the laity in missional churches because people are inspired to live their values in the larger world. Becoming a part of the mission of the church becomes an expectation for every member, not just a hope.

Most important, people see a purpose in their faith, a reason to be religious people rather than simply going out and joining a secular organization that does a lot of good. Their religious values become more connected to their faith tradition in ways that help them to become more holistic people.

Of course, the fact that relationships are so important to missional church means that encounters are authentic. Rather than some stranger knocking on your door and telling you the good news of Jesus, missional living means that people show their faith rather than telling people about it, and, as any good creative writing teacher will tell you, showing is always more powerful than telling.

These churches grow because they become well known for the good work they are doing in the community in relationship. People begin to think that they would like to be a part of such an exciting community.

Now a few radical thinkers are already beginning to adapt the missional model to our Unitarian Universalist congregations. I want to suggest a few things UU churches that are considering the missional model might think about:

How is your congregation equipping members to live their Unitarian Universalist faith in the world? Do most of your members only engage for an hour on Sunday morning?

What are the messages your members are hearing about money and volunteerism? Do they hear that these are chores, to be done until one burns out or runs out of money, or are they viewed as important, even vital, to living out the mission of the church?

Does your minister and staff encourage a consumerist mindset, or are they actively encouraging members to put their good ideas into action?

Do your members understand how their Unitarian Universalist religious values inform and direct their everyday actions, or are these merely nice sounding principles to be touted out once a week?

Does your worship service involve some way to connect to the wider world? Some good examples of this I’ve seen are congregations who acknowledge their building is built on stolen Native American land, naming murder victims within the city every week, or lighting a global candle of concern along with joys and sorrows.

In the future, I’ll be looking at various elements of the missional church much deeper and how we can adapt this model to Unitarian Universalism. For now, I encourage all of us to ask how our congregations can become hubs of transformation whose members live out our values every day. When we have the answers to these questions, I believe our faith will be renewed in a way we have not seen in a long time.